[Updated with official tour poster, 2:16pm EST.]

Prepare to get stangry: we are about to announce the dates of a really sweet tour, and unless you live in or near a major city the chances are pretty high that it’s not coming to your town! If the members of Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik could speak to you, I’m sure they’d say “We really wish we could visit all of you! We don’t give any fucks about our families, comfortable beds, good meals or regular showers! All we care about is serving YOU, the people of South Dakota! Next time we’ll do a non-stop 150-date U.S. tour and we can all party together!” Or not. Because dudes in bands have lives. Folks of Florida, Montana and Nebraska: deal with it.

Lucky for you, this most brutal of spring tours actually DOES have dates in Florida (two!) and Nebraska. Sorry, Montana, you’re still out of luck. But if it’s any consolation, this tour is not hitting either New York City or Los Angeles, so at least you can revel in that.

Dates after the break [via Noisecreep]:

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I fucking love, love, LOVE Cannibal Corpse’s new album, Torture – and one of my favorite tracks from that upcoming release, “Scourge of Iron,” is now available for streaming. It’s not crazy-fast chaotic Cannibal Corpse — to utilize some recent examples from the band’s catalog, it’s more in the vein of “A Cauldron of Hate” or “Evisceration Plague” than “The Time to Kill is Now” or “Make Them Suffer.” But I love when Cannibal Corpse break out the slower shit — they have a real talent for elephants marching riffs, and they don’t just play the same thing over and over and over again, instead making small-but-distinct changes to the riffs as the song progresses, ensuring that the track remains dynamic throughout.

And besides, I promise you, there are plenty of faster songs on Torture, too (like the already-released “Demented Aggression”).

Headbang — slowly — right here, then come back and discuss the fact that Cannibal Corpse are somehow still awesome after more then twenty years in our comments section below. If you haven’t done so already, I also strongly suggest that you read this interview MetalSucks’ own Dave Mustein recently conducted with Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster.

Torture comes out March 13 via Metal Blade.

-AR

The Faceless have been confirmed for Summer Slaughter 2012. That’s not shocking news, seeing as the band — like the fest’s previously announced co-headliners, Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me — have been rumored to be participating in the tour for three weeks now.

But it is still good news! Anyone who complains about a show where they’ll get to see Cannibal Corpse, BTBAM, and The Faceless should be hit in the head with a Halestorm album. Plus, there’s still at least seven other bands still to be announced; assuming the rumors continue to be true, those will include Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal, all of whom are also awesome. And Vince and I got word of yet ANOTHER great band set to be on the tour over the weekend. So, yeah, everyone is going to this.

The next band will be officially announced on Sunday via the Summer Slaughter Facebook page.

-AR

via The Chive, in case the logo didn’t make that clear

Can someone please try the above but with metal? I don’t really care if it’s death metal or power metal or whatever, just make sure you film it and send it to me. Also, don’t get arrested. Thanks.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We debuted new music by Scale the Summit and Junior Bruce.
• We learned about the NBA from God Forbid’s Doc Coyle.
• We spoke to Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse and Kris Norris from A Cancerous Affair.
• We checked out the latest album from Goatwhore, hardcore 7″s from Losin’ It, Appalachian Terror Unit, and Overlooked, and free releases from Autolatry, Yellow Eyes, Agartha, and Uvikra.
• We were surprised to learn that bands like this still exist.
• We were reminded that Juggalos are hilarious.
• We learned that Greg Puciato is dating the porn star Jenna Haze.
• We also learned that Bill Ward isn’t participating in the Black Sabbath reunion.

Okay, five o’clock! Time to punch out! Who’s got a joint?

-AR

The rumors are true: Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me will co-headline this year’s edition of the Summer Slaughter festour. BTBAM and The Corpse obviously play very, very different forms of death metal, but they’re both great. It’s hard to imagine any metal fan who isn’t a total fun-hating grump not being excited about this bill.

None of the other rumored acts — which include The Faceless, Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal — have been confirmed yet, and, as Lambgoat reports in a tone I very much appreciate, “Unfortunately, it looks like the Summer Slaughter people are going to string this out, with remaining participants to be announced each Sunday (one-by-one) via Facebook.” The past two Summer Slaughters have featured ten bands apiece, so we should know the full line-up by the end of March.

In any case, between this and the solid line-up Mayhem Fest has put together this year, it looks like it could be a really fun summer…

-AR

Cannibal Corpse have been the face of death metal for almost twenty-five years. Since their debut full-length Eaten Back to Life was released in 1990, they’ve dominated the scene with their brand of in-your-face brutal lyrics and slamming death metal. They’ve also managed to make a name for themselves as one of the most commercially successful death metal bands on the planet. Metal Blade will release their latest offering, Torture, on March 12 — you can pre-order it here.

I  recently spoke with bassist/founding memeber Alex Webster about the new album and the band’s upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary, as well as tons of other Cannibal-related activities. Read our full chat after the jump!

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If that combo makes you scratch your head and go “zuh?” then you certainly wouldn’t be the only one, but there you have it: three of the most vocal personalities from Cannibal Corpse, Killswitch Engage and The Black Dahlia Murder are apparently teaming up for a new project.

The news comes straight from Corpsegrinder’s mouth, as told to the Metal Injection dudes aboard the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise ship last week. Axl originally reported on a rumor about this merry group of metalmen back in August of 2011, but according to an article published by Rob Pasbani on Metal Injection yesterday it’s “DEFINITELY” (emphasis his!) happening. Here’s the juice:

We spoke with Corpsegrinder last week during our coverage of the 70,000 Tons of Metal, and even though the cameras stopped rolling, Corpsegrinder was still in a chatting mood. I just so happened to be wearing a Black Dahlia Murder shirt, and Corpsegrinder noticed it and confirmed to us that he is DEFINITELY working on a project with the Black Dahlia drummer, and Adam D. and it’s sounding killer.

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Out of all of the big summer package tours, Summer Slaughter has easily become our favorite; it’s so much fun every year that we’re even willing to forgive the to-be-expected presence of some bands we can’t stand (e.g., Oceano, As Blood Runs Black, etc.), because the rest of the line-up built around them is usually so fantastic that having a few built-in beer breaks isn’t the worst thing in the world (as opposed to some of SS’s competitors, where the beer-break-to-cool-band ratio makes the whole endeavor just not worth it). So, yeah, we’re on the edge of our seats to see who makes it onto the bill this year.

To that end, prog metal social network czar Alkahest of Heavy Blog has done it once again, today with some pretty juicy rumors about the lineup for Summer Slaughter 2012.

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I knew I got out of bed this morning for a reason!!!

Not only have Cannibal Corpse unveiled the typically-gross cover art for their new offering, Torture (by longtime Cannibal Collaborator Vincent Locke), but, more importantly, they’ve officially released the first single from the album, “Demented Aggression.” And, yes, it is fucking awesome, and a glorious illustration of why this band is still worth caring about: they’ve struck that perfect balance between the whole Slayer “Let’s never stray too far from our sound!” thing and the Metallica “But artistic evolution is important!” thing. They continue to improve as musicians and songwriters (seriously, I can’t believe I constantly have to stress this, but songwriting is so goddamn imporant!!!), but at no point does it seem to have occurred to them to, say, write a bunch of Godhead songs. Why can’t other bands pull this off?

Enjoy “Demented Aggression” below:

Cannibal Corpse “Demented Aggression” by Metal Blade Records

Torture was produced by Erik “I Am Incapable of Being Involved with Something Shitty” Rutan, and comes out March 13 via Metal Blade; there’s already a wide variety of attractive pre-order packages available here.

-AR

In the absence of actual new music or substantial information of some kind, I find it kinda hard to get psyched up about the announcement of an album release date in all but a few special cases. But there have been a number of big release date announcements and rumors in the past few days, so I figured I’d lump ‘em all together and, as if you expected anything else, share my thoughts, hopes and dreams for each. Here we go:

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF CANNIBAL CORPSE, OBSCURA, FORBIDDEN, LAZARUS A.D., GIANT SQUID, PYRAMIDS, WOLVHAMMER, BENEATH OBLIVION, HALCYON WAY, AND GADGET

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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Maybe we shoulda called it MetaSucks?

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley responded to Dr. Katrina McFerran’s study on teens, depression, and music. Then Dr. McFerran responded to Justin’s response. Then Justin responded to McFerran’s response to his response. Then I went permanently cross-eyed.
• We debuted new music by Keith Merrow’s Demisery.
• We spoke to Corey Lowery from Dark New Day and Eye Empire.
• We checked out the latest release from Astomatous and H20, Ringworm, Mindsnare, and Soul Search.
• We showed you some nice photos from both Day 1 and Day 2 of The Metal Suckfest.
• We counted down The Seven Most Metal Video Games Ever Made.
• We were bummed to learn that guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries are leaving Chimaira at the end of the year.
• We were even more bummed to see Chris Barnes shilling for used cars.
• We argued about the best metal albums of the 90s.
• We found something even worse than Lulu: LIVE Lulu.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t gotten blackout drunk in a week.

-AR

So we all know that the music industry is not in such hot shape these days, and most musicians need to try and find ways to pay their bills that don’t involve making music. That’s why so many of the metal “stars” we all know and love also teach instrument lessons on the side, or produce or mix stuff for other bands, or tend bar, or work at the mall, or whatever. The economy is pretty shitty right now even if you’re not trying to make a living making racket about death and destruction, y’know?

And so while I am sympathetic to Chris Barnes’ plight, and I absolutely recognize his place in metal history, dear sweet Cannibal Corpse do I wish this was not real.

I mean, I guess it beats the shit out of having to do actual work to make a few extra bucks, but holy shit, I wonder if Barnes realizes that he is never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, going to live this down. Never ever ever.

Sigh.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Ron Jarzombek is a name that’s too seldom heard outside of progressive metal circles, despite his extensive metal legacy. Sure, a handful of people may be familiar with Blotted Science — the so-called “supergroup” of which he is a part — but by and large, even those who know Blotted Science are unfamiliar with the man himself.

Jarzombek began his musical work with the underrated-yet-incredibly-influential prog band Watchtower in the 80s, then delved into the realm of technical instrumental music with Spastic Ink in the 90s and 2000s. Blotted Science’s debut, The Machinations of Dementia, was released in 2007, and  also featured Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster (who is still in the band) and Behold… The Arctopus’ Charlie Zeleny (who is not).

That band is now back after four years (with a new drummer, Obscura’s Hannes Grossman, to boot!) to release The Animation of Entomology, an EP centered around bugs and horror — so much that the songs were actually written to already-existing videos as kind of horror movie scores. You can see the video for the first one, “Cretaceous Chasm,” here; the second one, “Vermicular Asphixiation,” is here.

I Skyped with Ron last week to discuss the new EP and ended up learning a lot about Jarzombek’s musical history, Blotted Science, Jarzombek’s views on the current metal scene, and ESPN exercise videos.

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As I type this, I have just finished editing Dave Mustein’s interview with Ron Jarzombek regarding the new Blotted Science EP, The Animation of Entimology. And Mr. Mustein deserves a pat on the back or a lollipop or something, ’cause it’s a great interview and I learned a lot from it, and I hope you all read it when we run it (possibly even later today).

Please allow me to entice you with one of the cool things I learned: Jarzombek wasn’t a death metal fan until he saw Cannibal Corpse’s in-studio video for “Frantic Disembowelment,” the instrumental [Yeah, there are vox on the album. This is why you shouldn't write blogs at 2 am, kids! -AR] track from Cannibal Corpse’s 2004 release, The Wretched Spawn. That video, he says, demonstrated for him that it takes real skill to play death metal.

And it’s easy to see why this video impressed him so much that he ran out and hooked up with Alex Webster. I’m sure plenty of you have already seen this clip, which is obviously not at all new, but it’s so awesome that it’s always worth watching again. Seriously, Webster, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, and guitarist Pat O’Brien all deserve major props for this shit right here.

Kiler, killer, KILLER.

-AR

At long last, Blotted Science are getting ready to make their return! The band’s new EP, The Animation of Entomology, is coming out in less than a month, and now they’ve unveiled the album art (above), and two minutes of a new song, “Omitting Eyes” (below). And while I suspect the EP cover will cause some debate — I think it looks pretty cool, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some fans may find it too cartoony — I can’t imagine what anyone’s complaint about the song could be. It’s too awesome, maybe? I dunno I dunno. Check it out and see if you can find something bad to say about it that doesn’t make you sound like an irrational tool. I don’t think it’s possible.

BLOTTED SCIENCE – Omitting Eyes (edit) by EclecticElectric

The Animation of Entomology comes out October 4 via EclecticElectric.

-AR

A 100% accurate portrayal of the research discussed in this article.

In college, I once took a course on literary representations of New York City, and one the texts utilized was Frank Miller’s graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns.

My point being simply that it was only a matter of time until academia turned its eye towards extreme music.

From an official press release:

“A research group of a faculty member and graduate students in the University of North Carolina system and in the university of Oulu, Finland, are conducting a multi-year international study of the meaning of metal music. The research project was started in summer 2008 and its main data consists of questionnaires and interviews on the meaning of metal to the different participants of the global metal scene. So far, the researchers have received 370 survey responses, representing a diverse community of Metal fans—men and women between the ages of 13 and 70 from 25 different countries have participated in the research project thus far. Some of the artists interviewed in the project include members from Amorphis, Dark Tranquillity, Disturbed, Nonpoint, Swallow the Sun, Katatonia, The Black Dahlia Murder, Kreator, Epica, Scar Symmetry, As I Lay Dying, Barren Earth, Rotten Sound, and Cannibal Corpse.”

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Here’s an interesting story that The PRP picked up on: during a recent interview with Lithiummagazine.com, Killswitch Engage/Times of Grace guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz claimed to be working on  a death metal side project with the drummer from Black Dahlia Murder and the singer from Cannibal Corpse.” (That would be Shannon Lucas and  George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, respectively, in case you somehow don’t know that.)

And while it isn’t presently clear whether or not Dutkiewicz was being serious or just dicking around, I’d still like to say right now: I would check that band out.

Here’s my reasoning:

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As regular readers are aware, I’m usually dead-set against cover albums, which tend to feature meaningless, generally inferior versions of great songs the listener already owns in their original, classic forms.

But I’m willing to give Dying Fetus the benefit of the doubt that if they’ve made a covers album, it’s worth listening to. They’ve earned that much. Why? BECAUSE THEY’RE DYING FUCKING FETUS, that’s why. Duh.

So. In celebration of both their twentieth anniversary and their stint on the year’s edition of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, this July the  band will release History Repeats…, which will not only feature the band re-imaging tracks from some of death n’ grinds finest (Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, etc.), but will also feature “Rohypnol,” a brand new song. You might know rohypnol as “roofies,” or “the date rape drug.” So this tune is probably a charming power ballad in the vein of Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses.”

History Repeats… comes out July 19 on Relapse, and is limited to 5,000 copies. You can get it a f.y.e. stores, or just pre-order it directly from Relapse.

The full track list for this bad mother is after the jump, along with those Summer Slaughter dates. Other bands on the bill are The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins.

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Photo by Alison Webster

This month, brutal death metal trio Hate Eternal, led by producer/guitarist Erik Rutan, has been at the center of a pitched battle between MS co-lord Axl Rosenberg and MS writer-at-large Anso DF. The conflict? Is Hate Eternal’s forthcoming Phoenix Amongst The Ashes record awesomely killer (per Axl) or is it insanely ripping (per Anso)? Does it fuck the face and slam the nutz (Anso) or does it render each listener “so fucking happy to be alive” (Axl)? Can its production and performances better be described as a high watermark of contemporary metal (Axl) or as a gift from another realm to every living music listener (Anso)? Is Phoenix a shoo-in for metal album of the year (Axl) or does it crush every other record on earth (Anso)?

Welcome to our love war.

When the time came to phone up Rutan for a discussion of Phoenix and other Hate Eternal affairs, we at MetalSucks opted to settle this battle of agreement with an interview conducted by both Axl Rosenberg and Anso DF. Unsurprisingly, Rutan took on the task with good humor and ease, only succumbing to confusion at times when Axl and Anso simultaneously rushed to hail Phoenix and its predecessor Fury & Flames. In its unexpurgated glory, we present our very special double-team interview of the great Erik Rutan.

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